Background of the Study

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Today, education is doing a basic innovation related to the school curriculum. The innovations demand the change of the way of thinking, the learning method, and the evaluation technique. Related to this problem, The National Educational Department has changed the previous curriculum Competency based-Curriculum CBC with the new one called Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan KTSP and in English language it is School Level-based Curriculum SLBC. Here curriculum is a set of plan and rules about goals, contents, and learning materials as well as the way of using it as guide for the implementation of learning activity that aimed at a specific goal BSNP, 2006. SLBC is an operational curriculum which is prepared and impelmented in each eduactional unit. SLBC consists of target of education of level based education, structure and contents of curriculum in educational unit level, educational calender and syllabus. Syllabus is a learning plan on a subject matterspecific theme and or a group of subject matterspecific themes that cover competency standards, basic competencies, subject matterslearning material, learning activities, indicators, assesments, time allocation, and sourcematerialinstrument of learning. Syllabus is a detailed explanation of competency standards and basic competencies that are realized into subject matterlearning materials, learning activities, and assesment indicators of competency achievment. In the end of learning the students are hoped to master a set of competency attitude, skill, knowledge, capability, personality, principle, value, interest, and conviction to pass processes of active, creative, pleasant, and effective learning that can be used in future. School Level-based Curriculum SLBC is developed according to its relevance by every group or educational unit under coordination and supervision of educational department or Religious department of RegencyMunicipal that we use for basic education and provinces for intermediate education. Development of SBC is taking references on Standard of Content, Standard of Graduate Competence and based on a curriculum preparation guidelines that are released by the National Body of Educational Standard BSNP, as well as to paying attention to considerations of schoolmadrasah commitee. Development of SLBC for special education is coordinated and supervised by educational department of province level, and it is based on standard of content and standard of graduate competence and a curiculum preparation guideline that is released by the National Body of Educational Standard BSNP. Guidance prepared by BSNP consists of two sections. First, General Guidelines contains general provisions of curriculum development that can be applied in educational unit by referring to Competency Standards and Basic Competencies established the standard of content and standard of graduate competence.The contents of the general provisions are explanations of the mandate established in UU no 202003 and in PP no 192005 and principles and actions that must become the references in developing the SLBC. Second, SLBC model is an example of final outcome in deloping SLBC by referring to standard of content and satandard of graduate competence that consider the guidelines from General Guide established by BSNP. As a model of SBC, of course, it cannot accomodate the needs of all regions in Indonesia and it should be a reference. The government of Indonesia decided that English is the first foreign language which is learned and it is put in the school curriculum. It is hoped that by using SLBC the students will comprehend amd master the language better. Considering that SLBC is new and it is not fully implemented yet, the writer tries to find out the result of analysis how the SLBC is implemented especially in teaching English. Curriculum is one of the factors that determines the success of teaching learning process. According to Depdiknas 2006 :46, curriculum is defined as a set of plan and regulation about the purpose, content, and teaching materials and the technique which are used as orientation of the implementation in teaching learning processes to achieve certain education objectives. It involves the objectives, facilities, and evaluation of education. Nowadays, Indonesia implements SLBC. This curriculum is the seventh curriculum that has ever been implemented in Indonesia after 1954, 1964, 1975, 1984, 1994 curriculum, and Competency based Curriculum. There are some components in the new curriculum. Those components, according to Susilo 2007:88, include the objectives, teaching materials, teaching learning process and assessment, and evaluation. Every component is related to one another. The objectives are related to the teaching materials, teaching learning process and evaluation. The objectives can be divided into general and specific objective. General objectives in developing curriculum are, for example, making learners to be honest, to have responsibility, politeness, etc while the specific objective in developing the curriculum is, for example, generating knowledge in the form of facts or certain information for the learners Susilo 2007:90. The second component is teaching materials. According to Hutchinson and Waters 1987:107 good materials will contain interesting texts, enjoyable activities, and opportunities for learners to use their existing knowledge and skills. The materials should reflect the outside world. It should also have a degree of authenticity. This authenticity should relate to text sources as well as to students’ activities and tasks. The materials should also foster independent learning by raising the consciousness of the learners and making them more aware of the learning process Nunan 1988:99. School Level-based Curriculum gives a school a chance to develop teaching materials based on the school potentials, students’ needs and ability and the need of the society around the school. In implementing School Level- based Curriculum, the teachers have to prepare those materials themselves by considering that these materials should suit to the syllabi. The third component of curriculum is teaching-learning process. According to Kimble Garmezy 1963:133 in Brown 2000:7, learning is a relatively permanent change in behavioral tendency and is the result of reinforced practice while teaching is defined as showing or helping someone to learn how to do something, giving instructions, guiding in the study of something, providing with knowledge, causing to know and understanding. From the definition above it can be concluded that teaching-learning process is the real activity in implementing the curriculum in the classroom. School Level -based Curriculum gives a school a broad chance to arrange and develop a syllabus which accommodates the school potentials, students’ needs and ability and the needs of the surrounding society. The last component of curriculum is assessment and evaluation. Assessment and evaluation are important components in the curriculum. Both of them are used by the teachers to judge their teaching and to determine how much their pupils have learnt. Nunan 1988:116 states that no curriculum model would be complete without an evaluation component. It means that the teachers and learners need to be involved in the evaluation process. It will also be argued that self-assessment provides one of the most effective means of developing both critical self-awareness of what it is to be a learner and skills in learning how to learn. Evaluation in School Level-based Curriculum can be done by class evaluation which consists of daily examination, general examination, and final examination, basic ability test, school based evaluation and certification, benchmarking, and program evaluation. In this research the writer is going to analyze the implementation of School Level-based Curriculum in the English teaching and learning. The subjects of the research were the teachers and the students. Teachers are the key actors in the curriculum implementation, the study limits the problem on the implementation of School Level-based Curriculum in the process of English teaching learning at SMP N 2 Batang in the first year in 20082009 academic year. The research was conducted in SMP N 2 Batang because it is considered as one of the pilot project schools in the implementation of School Level-based Curriculum. Therefore, in this research paper, the researcher takes a title “THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SCHOOL LEVEL-BASED CURRICULUM IN THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH TO THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS OF SMP N 2 BATANG IN 20082009 ACADEMIC YEAR”. Hopefully the result of this research will improve knowledge of teaching strategies for the teacher and the teacher candidates, and also give a benefit for the education in the country.

B. Problem Statement